Ghana Education Minister calls for data-driven investment to fix learning gaps

Ghana’s Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, is calling for increased investment in foundational learning, specifically literacy and numeracy, to ensure that expanded educational access translates into actual skill acquisition. Speaking at an event in Accra, Iddrisu emphasized that education policies must be evidence-based to address systemic gaps.

An Auditor-General’s report highlighted significant infrastructure deficits, revealing that approximately 10,700 public basic schools across 13 regions lack adequate classrooms, affecting over three million pupils. Iddrisu described the situation as a moral obligation, noting that the 1992 Constitution guarantees free, compulsory, and universal basic education.

Additionally, UNICEF Ghana has urged the Ministry of Education to utilize local data to address disparities in teacher distribution. While the national pupil-teacher ratio is approximately 1:32, research shows that nearly 14 percent of schools face ratios exceeding 50 students per teacher. This uneven distribution increases workloads and impacts teaching quality in underserved communities. To combat low performance, the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) has been used to identify and support over 10,500 struggling schools.